YOU DON’T NEED SIGHT TO FIND OPPORTUNITIES IN BLIND SPOTS
Senior Visioneer Brian Bushway is also one of the proudest legacies of the efforts by Daniel Kish to teach blind people to see with sound and to liberate themselves from traditional dependency and isolation.
One of our earliest students, Brian lost his sight at 14, and is living testimony to the self-directed independence that FlashSonar™ Echolocation can lead to. Brian uses his insights to help people find opportunities in their blind spots.
BRIAN BUSHWAY
M.A. Spec.ED | B.A. Speech Communication – Minor in Non-Profit Management | COMS
Senior Perceptual Navigation Instructor | Enterprise Visioneer | Activational Presenter
BRIAN BUSHWAY: Senior Instructor Visioneer
Brian Bushway graduated from Pepperdine University in 2005 with a degree in Speech Communication and a minor in Non-Profit Management. He went on to earn his Master’s Degree in Special Education and was one of the few blind persons after Daniel Kish t0 earn his COMS (Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist) National Certification.
While at Pepperdine, Brian produced and hosted a college talk radio show which included commentary on current events and featured comedy bits. He was also instrumental in shaping the Non-Profit Management course at Pepperdine. He worked hand in hand with business professionals in the greater Los Angeles area to create the first Community Partners Board.
Brian also studied abroad in Lyon, France and then in London, England which provided a foundation of skill sets regarding cultural sensitivities.
Brian delivers activational workshops and presentations to a broad educational, corporate, and non-profit audiences, focusing on embracing life experience and maximizing the opportunities that life has to offer, with an insight to personal growth.
He engages and activates audiences with strategies to think and act like successful navigators of life.
Through his life story and personal demonstrations, he shares his insight into finding the opportunities that are located in peoples “blind spots”.
“It is in our blind spots”, he says, “where lies the untapped potential of additional growth. Once recognized that there is more to gain in all of us, the trick becomes acting on it and moving forward.”
Brian has taught the “Power of Positive Thinking” for the past several years at the Braille Institute of America.
In Feb 2010, Brian served as the Master of Ceremonies and Keynote speaker for the regional Braille Challenge, attended by more than 200 participants and their families.
Brian has appeared in Men’s Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and an acclaimed popular science book, “See What I’m Saying” by Prof. Lawrence Rosenblum, about the power of human senses.
In 2019, Brian and Lead Visioneer Daniel Kish consulted for SONY corporation, participating in a panel on inclusive product design at the SONY WOW Studio at SXSW 2019 in Austin, Texas. You can read more about it and watch a video of the panel on this News page.
BRIAN BUSHWAY: Senior Instructor Visioneer
Brian serves as a Perceptual Navigation Instructor for Visioneers.org/World Access for the Blind, a Los Angeles area-based 501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization that teaches blind persons to rewire their brain to see in a new way using a fusion of FlashSonar echolocation and full-length Perception Cane navigation into what we call SonarVision.
In addition to working with blind students from all backgrounds, Brian also serves as a teacher of sighted mobility instructors on the use of FlashSonar™ (a specialized form of Active Echolocation) and Perceptual Navigation strategies. He designs and implements perceptual development plans for each client, and serves families by offering informational counseling and emotional support. Brian’s joint efforts with the Visioneers Team, including multiple workshops around the world, have made life-changing impacts (see our special report on Assignment Thailand).
But his impact doesn’t end there.
Brian has provided Perceptual Consulting for international organizations such as Calcutta Mercy Ministries in India. A book about distinctive individuals “Round Pizza in a Square Box” by Amitabh Singh was dedicated to Brian for the work he did in Kolkata.
He also worked with other organizations such as The Armenian Eye Care Project, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and Visibility Scotland. He has helped them create blind mobility programs and education courses on FlashSonar™, Perceptual Navigation, and family coaching.
Brian has been featured in full length documentaries produced by Joni and Friends Ministries, BBC Switch ‘Teensville: Bat School For The Blind‘ for children and youth, Calcutta Mercy Ministeries, and Mosaic Ministeries, as well as a featured subject on The Doctors which is archived with a second video clip, National Geographic’s ‘You Can’t Lick Your Own Elbow‘, and Discovery Canada’s Daily Planet.
Among multiple television and radio programs, Brian has appeared on Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Fox News, CBS Medical Minute, BBC’s Extraordinary People: ‘The Boy Who Sees without Eyes’, RTL Network’s ‘Spiegel Magazin’, CNN/CNN International’s ‘Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta’, NPR’s This American Life, and The Story on American Public Media.
Brian’s presentations about FlashSonar™ have also been showcased at the Museums of Science and Industry in Chicago and Oregon.
BRIAN BUSHWAY: Senior Instructor Visioneer
Brian Bushway graduated from Pepperdine University in 2005 with a degree in Speech Communication and a minor in Non-Profit Management. He went on to earn his Master’s Degree in Special Education and was one of the few blind persons after Daniel Kish t0 earn his COMS (Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist) National Certification.
While at Pepperdine, Brian produced and hosted a college talk radio show which included commentary on current events and featured comedy bits. He was also instrumental in shaping the Non-Profit Management course at Pepperdine. He worked hand in hand with business professionals in the greater Los Angeles area to create the first Community Partners Board.
Brian also studied abroad in Lyon, France and then in London, England which provided a foundation of skill sets regarding cultural sensitivities.
Brian delivers activational workshops and presentations to a broad educational, corporate, and non-profit audiences, focusing on embracing life experience and maximizing the opportunities that life has to offer, with an insight to personal growth.
He engages and activates audiences with strategies to think and act like successful navigators of life.
Through his life story and personal demonstrations, he shares his insight into finding the opportunities that are located in peoples “blind spots”.
“It is in our blind spots”, he says, “where lies the untapped potential of additional growth. Once recognized that there is more to gain in all of us, the trick becomes acting on it and moving forward.”
Brian has taught the “Power of Positive Thinking” for the past several years at the Braille Institute of America.
In Feb 2010, Brian served as the Master of Ceremonies and Keynote speaker for the regional Braille Challenge, attended by more than 200 participants and their families.
Brian has appeared in Men’s Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and an acclaimed popular science book, “See What I’m Saying” by Prof. Lawrence Rosenblum, about the power of human senses.
In 2019, Brian and Lead Visioneer Daniel Kish consulted for SONY corporation, participating in a panel on inclusive product design at the SONY WOW Studio at SXSW 2019 in Austin, Texas. You can read more about it and watch a video of the panel on this News page.
LATEST NEWS: NEW VIDEOS
BRIAN BUSHWAY – UNO® BRAILLE MASTER
Senior Instructor Visioneers stars as blind UNO® player
Mattel and the National Federation of the Blind have partnered together to create a Braille edition of UNO®, the iconic family card game. UNO® has always prided itself on being a card game for everyone, but often blind and low-vision people found it difficult to participate. Now, with easily readable Braille dots on every card, blind and low-vision players can participate in the fun.
We’re proud that Senior Instructor Visioneer Brian Bushway was asked to be the blind player in the “How To” video for the game which you can watch on the official Uno Braille page. Hmmm, wonder who wins?
HOW BLIND PEOPLE SEE WITH SOUND
PBS Digital Studio’s “It’s Okay To Be Smart”
From Dr. Joe Hanson: I met Molly Burke a few months ago. She’s awesome. I absolutely love what she’s done on YouTube to bring awareness to living with disability, and turning it into ability. And her guide dog Gallop is awesome too!
When Molly and I first met, we started talking about how she navigates the world, because I’m a nerd and I always steer the conversation toward science. I was not prepared for what she told me.
She said she uses echolocation! Molly’s brain has adapted to listen to sounds in her environment in ways that most of us sighted people can’t even imagine.
I went to meet her in LA and brought a special surprise, to see if my brain could learn what hers has.
THE WORLD’S BEST BLIND MOUNTAIN BIKER
CNN’s Great Big Story profiles Instructor Visioneer Brian Bushway
From Great Big Story: Anyone who rides a mountain bike on downhill terrain knows how perilous it can be. Well, imagine riding downhill without being able to see. Brian Bushway is a pro at it. Named by Mountain Bike Magazine as the World’s Best Blind Mountain Biker, he lost his sight when he was 14. Wanting to discover alternative ways to explore the world, Bushway learned how to see with sound. Like bats, he relies on echolocation when he mountain bikes, using sound to locate objects.
Our thanks to Great Big Story for making this Descriptive Audio version of the profile, to show how content can be adapted for blind and visually impaired users.
You can view this video without audio descriptions: https://youtu.be/FWbWBWH8OYk
BRIAN BUSHWAY: ACTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
Brian Bushway visioneers activational exchanges that explore attitudes of success, managing change, and learning to adapt to – and navigate – challenges that occasionally come along in life.
Brian’s life achievements are woven into great stories of success as an Activational Speaker.
BRIAN BUSHWAY: HIS CLICKS ECHO TO OVER 2 BILLION VIEWERS
Whether on his own, or as part of the Visioneers Team garnering over 26.7 million views in X Ambassador’s Renegades music video, Brian’s FlashSonar™ clicks have echoed globally via the top international TV, radio and online networks, including ABC Australia, CBS, CCTV, CNN, Discovery, Fox, National Geographic, NPR, RTL, Uproxx and many more.
CONGRATULATIONS DANIEL KISH AND BRIAN BUSHWAY
FOR +31 MILLION VIEWS AS PART OF X AMBASSADORS’ RENEGADES!
OUR TEAM: THEY STARTED AS CLIENTS AND GREW INTO INSTRUCTORS
One of the proudest legacies of the decades-long efforts by Daniel Kish to teach blind persons to see with sound and to liberate themselves from the traditional cycles of isolated dependency, has been the team of Perceptual Navigation Visioneers he’s assembled from his students who have grown up with FlashSonar™ Echolocation and its NO LIMITS philosophy.
WE TEACH BLIND PERSONS TO SEE WITH SOUND
When it’s a beautiful day, our students see it in a new way.
Our scientifically-proven FlashSonar™ echolocation lights-up the brain’s Visual Cortex – the part normally used for vision – with audible spatial feedback, like flashes of light in the dark lighting-up the surrounding environment.
We operate entirely on donations.
Be the flash of light for a blind child, teen or adult by donating towards a FlashSonar™ Tuition Scholarship , so we can
teach them to
LIGHT-UP THEIR WORLD!
MAKE A PERSONAL DONATION
All donations are SECURED via PayPal to our parent 501(c)3 Non-Profit: World Access For The Blind
YOUR GIFT ENABLES SO MUCH!
Our blind instructors with Masters Degrees provide services that are “ahead of the curve” from traditional blindness institutions, such as:
THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF TIME:
Did you know that 90% of a child’s brain is developed before the age of 5? Even some “developed” countries won’t teach blind children orientation, mobility and cane navigation until the age of 7. Do you realize how much developmental time is lost? We teach sonic and tactile awareness as early as possible and even put Perception canes in their hand as early as a year old.
TRAINING THE BRAIN:
FlashSonar clicks+Audible Awareness+Perception Cane activates the Visual Cortex, training the brain to rewire to develop SonarVision.
HELPING AUTISTIC BLIND KIDS:
We specialize in Special Education services and advocacy for families and Assessment Reports for School Districts, and much more.
MAKE A BUSINESS DONATION
DONATE BY CHECK
Please make the check payable to:
World Access For The Blind
and mail to:
Visioneers | World Access For The Blind
650 N. Rose Drive, #208
Placentia, CA 92870
All donations made in the United States are tax-deductible.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR THOUGHTFUL AND GENEROUS SUPPORT!
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